• Serpent Among Crows • Kaz Brekker

13

Inej had shed a few layers of clothing and elegantly hung in the air, suspended by two scarlet streams of silk that wrapped around the underside of her leg and midsection.

The Crows watched intently as Inej gracefully contorted her body in the ways of a gymnast, spiralling and using her flexibility to awe the interested crowd.

At the last moment she released one hand from the fabric and allowed herself to fall; spiralling towards the ground, she twisted her body, catching herself at the last moment and arching her back, extending an arm delicately outwards.

The crowd gasped and then cheered as she dropped onto her feet, releasing the silks and bowing elegantly.

As she approached her friends from the stage, Zhen gave her a nod, shifting her belongings in her arms. (Inej trusted her the most with her knives.) But Marko clapped loudly and cut off Inej before she could get there, extending his hands out towards her.

"The saints must have sent you! Yes, the show will go on. Now," he revealed a very bright and bold garment, striped with daring yellows, oranges and pinks. "Can you fit into this?"

Zhen coughed to disguise her smirk. The glitter coating the thing was atrocious.

"Um..." inej stared at it in distaste, hesitant.

Jesper intercepted the two, placing his hands on Marko's shoulders with a grin that couldn't get any wider. "Of course she can!"

Inej glared at the boy.

"Those are her colours," he continued, turning him around to face them all as a group, sliding an arm round his shoulders like they were good friends.  "But the thing is... Inej comes as a package deal."

The man shook his head definitively, surveying them all. "No free rides," he looked at them. "What are your talents?"

Zhen looked up at Kaz, dread pooling in her stomach. He shook his head at her subtly.

Jesper was quickly seated in front of the stage, the crowd leaving space but surrounding him, watching in awe as he held up an ornate hand held mirror.

Inej hung in the background, the silks hooked around her legs, her back arched, arm pointed out in a graceful, extended pose high the air.

A playing card was placed between her teeth.

As she slowly span, her body still as a statue, Jesper calculated the angle and fired.

The bullet tore the card in half and the crowd, in awe, burst into applause.

Marko patted Jesper on the back as he got up and then his eyes turned to Zhen and Kaz, who stood stoically off to the side, glad not to be involved.

"What about the two of you?" Marko asked expectantly.

Zhen went to tell him to keep them out of it but Kaz beat her to it.

"We'll make our own way." He remarked stoically, glancing out for a moment at the rest of the people in the tavern.

Zhen nodded.

Inej gently took her belongings from her arms and put them back on, strapping her knives to various places on her body while silently uttering their names under her breath.

Zhen watched her with a little smile.

The Winter Fete wasn't taking place until the next day but the travelling troupe were setting off in their carriages later that evening; Zhen managed to persuade Marko to at least take them to the next town over - she argued that Kaz was a poor cripple and it would be cruel not to at least do that. (Much to all of their amusement as Kaz was anything but.)